Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi called on Tehran to stay out
of Yemen´s internal affairs on Wednesday after security officials in
Sanaa announced they had uncovered an Iranian spy ring there.
affairs.

"We hope that our brothers in Iran won´t interfere in Yemen´s affairs
and that they take into consideration the situation in Yemen, Hadi
said.

Hadi  who replaced ousted 33-year president Ali Abdullah Saleh
earlier this year  is fighting a US-backed offensive against an
entrenched tribal-based Islamist insurgency with a deeply divided
army.

Bordering Saudi Arabia  the world´s top oil producer and a key US
ally  Washington views Yemen as a frontline in its "counter-
terrorism" campaign against al-Qaeda. Washington, Riyadh, and other
Gulf Arab nations have previously accused Iran of actively seeking to
destabilize the region, including southern and northern Yemen.

Iranian spy rings have also been broken up by security officials in
Kuwait and Bahrain this year, though Tehran disavows any knowledge of
its alleged agent´s activities.

US ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, has openly accused Shi´ite
Iran of working with Shi´ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen and
secessionists in the south to gain influence at the expense of
Yemen´s Sunni Gulf neighbors.

Saudi Arabia and its fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council
are vying with Iran for hegemony over the Persian Gulf region, and
crafted the power transfer deal that saw Hadi  Saleh´s long-term
Vice President  rise to power.

Hadi has vowed to preserve Yemen and fight the country´s branch of al
Qaeda  whose local affiliates took control of parts of southern
Yemen during the popular uprising against Saleh´s long rule.